The invention relates in general to hand grenades and in particular to fuzes for hand grenades.
Grenades, such as the M67 fragmentation hand grenade, are widely used in the field by the US Army and US Marine Corps. The present fuze for the M67 hand grenade does not comply with the Insensitive Munitions (IM) requirements. This problem relates to the C70 Detonator used in the fuze. The detonator contains large quantities of lead-based primary explosives (lead azide, lead styphnate) as well as RDX. These explosives initiate the grenade under many of the IM test conditions. Safety issues, in combination with the environmental compliance requirements for use of lead compounds, make the manufacture of these detonators an unattractive investment for US-based manufacturers.
A need exists for a new hand grenade fuze. The new fuze must not impact the lethality of the present design (M67), while meeting the IM safety requirements. It also should reduce the item's total life-cycle cost, and the soldiers' and environment's exposure to lead.